On the NFL

Steelers, Cardinals reach Super Bowl with other teams' discards

February 01, 2009|By David Haugh

TAMPA — If you were James Harrison, you might be surly too.

You might resent going undrafted, being cut three times by the Steelers and once by the Ravens only to make the Pro Bowl in 2007 and become the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2008 once your team finally let you start.

No wonder the Steelers linebacker started making plans to become a bus driver after the last time he was cut: At least bus drivers can steer where their immediate future is headed. Pro football players need a mixture of luck, opportunity and ability -- maybe in that order if Sunday's Super Bowl XLIII between Harrison's Steelers and Kurt Warner's Cardinals is any indication.

"There are 32 teams out there, and as long as one likes you, you're good," Harrison said.

That would be one more team than liked Warner when the Green Bay Packers cut the quarterback after training camp in 1994 and he took a job as a grocery clerk in Iowa.

That famously sent Warner on an odyssey likely to end in Canton, Ohio, but began in the Arena Football League when no NFL team would give him a chance. The Rams finally did, in 1998, and were impressed enough to expose Warner to the expansion draft a year later.

Warner didn't start an NFL game until he was 28 but led the Rams to two Super Bowls. Still, they later concluded he was done and cut him in 2004. That allowed Warner to sign with the Giants, who let him go after one season.

When Warner signed with Arizona in 2005, he did so because the Cardinals were the only team -- Rex Grossman was your quarterback, Bears fans -- willing to name him the starter from Day 1.

"What I have come to learn is we learn a lot in the ups and the downs of life," Warner reflected last week.

This Super Bowl has taught every college and NFL executive, coach and scout to remember the perils of making assumptions when evaluating talent.

There are the infamous misses on Harrison and Warner, but they aren't the only prominent examples on display at Raymond James Stadium of one man's football trash becoming another man's treasure.

On the Steelers, free safety Ryan Clark is in black and gold only because the Washington Redskins let him go in 2005 to make room for Adam Archuleta. Running back Willie Parker wasn't drafted after making only a few starts in four seasons at North Carolina. Starting fullback Sean McHugh was cut last training camp by, yes, the Lions, who would go 0-16.

Even quarterback Ben Roethlisberger started on his path to NFL stardom at Miami of Ohio only because Ohio State never offered him a scholarship and asked him to consider playing tight end.

On the Cardinals, besides Warner, fullback Terrelle Smith signed in 2007 after the Browns released him. Center Lyle Sendlein went undrafted out of Texas, but the Cardinals saw something in the guy who started every game this season. Guard Reggie Wells, out of Division II Clarion, lasted six rounds in the 2003 NFL draft before the Cardinals took a gamble that has paid off with 74 starts.

"I don't think it's a matter of bad player evaluation because it's not a science," said Marv Levy, the former Bills coach and general manager.

Levy called Bill Polian of the Colts the NFL's best GM because of the way he balances his roster with draft picks and players he finds wherever he needs to look.

"Yes, the draft, percentage-wise, is the best way, but we went everywhere -- free agents, Canada, NFL Europe, Arena Football, tryouts," Levy said. "You're going to get one out of 20 sometimes but, boy, you're going to be glad when you got him."

Gil Brandt understands what Levy means.

Brandt was the Dallas Cowboys' vice president of player personnel in 1970 when he was breaking down film of prospects whose opponent was Ouachita Baptist, a Division II school in Arkansas. One of Ouachita's players ran back two kickoffs for touchdowns, and Brandt recalled saying the Cowboys needed to have that player.

His name was Cliff Harris, and he developed into a six-time Pro Bowl safetywho made the all-1970s team.

That recollection of finding a player nobody else wanted delighted Brandt almost as much as the tale he retold about former Cowboys cornerback Cornell Green. Green started 145 games for Dallas from 1962-74 but was a basketball player who never played football at Utah State.

"Overall, I think player evaluation is better today, but on the surface it probably seems worse because so much more attention is paid now to hits and misses," Brandt said. "A quarterback has to play at least 30 college games or else you'll have a hard time knowing."

That's more starts than Joe Montana had when he came out of Notre Dame in 1979. Montana was a guest on former 49ers teammate Randy Cross' radio show this week when Joe Cool was asked in what round he would get selected if he were to be drafted today.

"I wouldn't get drafted," Montana answered.

Cross called Montana, a third-round pick who became a Hall of Fame quarterback, the ultimate personnel miss but he marveled at the examples of Warner and Harrison.